Are you “On the Grid”

In the movie the Bone Identity & Supremacy the character was completely off the grid. No phone, no driver’s license, no credit cards, no bills, no real physical proof of existence beyond his location at any given time.

Then there are most Americans who use a credit or debit card everywhere they go, have emergency GPS locaters in their cell phones, have enough ID cards to fill a wallet, trackers on cars, and are locatable just about every moment of the day. We have multiple e-mail accounts, on-line identities, accounts at several different places, and we are just short of having a GPS locator chip in our heads.

How on the Grid are you? If someone needed to get a hold of you are you just a phone call away? What about an e-mail. Additionally at what point to “modern convinces” become a short leash?

People will miss that it once meant something to be Southern or Midwestern. It doesn't mean much now, except for the climate. The question, “Where are you from?” doesn't lead to anything odd or interesting. They live somewhere near a Gap store, and what else do you need to know? - Garrison Keillor

Doh.... it won't let me edit it. Get your mind out of the gutter you sicko!

Originally posted by JNA

If you are not on the grid, is that the same being a "neo-luddite" ?
or just not into the trendy consumerism of having the newest, flashy toys ?

You could still have a rotary dial phone at your house and be on the grid. Like everything else in life, it is one On or Off, but a scale based on your dependence on technology based communication/ interaction.

A person could have no cell phone but use a debit card for everything under the sun and still be as much on the grid as someone with a crackberry.

Well I have a basic cellphone (allows me to talk and send text messages), and I rarely use it, or get calls there; 3 e-mail addresses, which don't get much e-mails (besides spam and other unsolicited messages from uni to my uni email), online identities... I think I have 2 or 3, no more. I have broadband, a credit card that I only use for groceries (in Santiago), and that's pretty much it.

If you're so worried about being always available... build yourself a Faraday cage and live in there.

No PDA, no pager, thank God. To me that stuff is too much like a ball and chain.

I refused to get a cell phone until a few months ago, when I broke down and purchased a Tracfone to carry with me while traveling. So far I've only had to use it twice. It only has 90 minutes on it. Why pay for monthly cell phone service?

I've never really understood the whole cell phone phenomenon anyway. I don't really like talking on the phone much as it is; why would I want to chat while I'm driving or at a restaurant or something???

Bear No Grid

This Bear.....

Cell phone.....nope. I will pick up a Trac Phone, for emergencies. Just haven't gotten a "round tuit".
PC.....obviously, the answer is yes.
Internet.....work and at home.
Pager.....never had one, never will.
Radio.....regular table top (next to bed) and shortwave.
Debit card.....nope.
PDA.....nope.
GPS.....nope.
Horn on my 12-speed Miyata bike.....nope (I use a sports whistle)
Beer.....yep, in the 'fridge.

On my local newspaper on-line forum, we are having a running argument on gas taxes being replaced by milage taxes. They say it violates privacy and will never get past the courts, and I say that the GPS, radar, and black boxes are a tenth of what they cost a year ago, and many of the new cars already have GPS.

Psychotics are consistently inconsistent. The essence of sanity is to be inconsistently inconsistent.
-Larry Wall

Want to know how on the grid you are? Google yourself. Even though I carry two cell phones, have two e-mail addresses, have my name on several public documents, and belong to several groups, I'm still impressed at how accessable I am.

What do you mean I can't plan? My SimCity has 300,000 people with a 99% happiness rating!

I have a cell phone, a few email accounts, and a landline. What pisses me off is when I'm told to give the boss my private cell number. heck, get me a county phone and I'll give you the number. Not one I'm paying for.

I consider myself reasonably private, I don't answer the phone during dinner or when I don't want to be disturbed, after all, I'm paying for it. NO Blackberry for me.

Want to know how on the grid you are? Google yourself. Even though I carry two cell phones, have two e-mail addresses, have my name on several public documents, and belong to several groups, I'm still impressed at how accessable I am.

I've done this before and just now repeated it. When I google my first name, my last name, I come up with nothing about me.

When I google some of the names I go by online, I do get hits. And, jesus, that's a horrible photo of me on Yahoo 360 degrees. I forgot I made one of those pages. Feh.

Although seriously, I used to live in an area where people where very proud to be off the grid. These people were very centered and happy. In some ways I was jealous of them. Of course they cant hold a candle to my awesome mp3, camera, video, internet phone

Reading recent volumes about the philosophy of technology and the root of what makes people inherently unhappy, I have become ever-wanting to get off the grid. Especially yesterday when I got a virtual sales pitch for the i-Phone from a coworker. (Here husband invest a bunch in Apple I guess.... )

LIke I had dropped in the RTDNTOTO v2.0;

Originally posted by Z-Rad

Connection breeds disconnection...

Yes, Cynics, I am well aware I am writing on a lap top over the wire service to say these things... DONT bring it...

One might have to ask, is it possible to be OFF the grid these days?

You get all squeezed up inside/Like the days were carved in stone/You get all wired up inside/And it's bad to be alone

You can go out, you can take a ride/And when you get out on your own/You get all smoothed out inside/And it's good to be alone
-Peart